What Does 1 Corinthians 5:5 Mean?
To hand such a one over to the Adversary for the perishing of the flesh, that the breath may be delivered in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.THE KEY
The verse holds two outcomes together: the flesh is given over to destruction, while the breath is still named as capable of being brought through.
THE MEANING
The verse places you before a severe claim: someone is handed to the Adversary, and the flesh is exposed to destruction. In the same sentence, it names a horizon where the person’s breath is brought through in the day of the Lord Jesus. The harm stays in the words; it is neither erased nor made the whole story.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the assumption that destruction of the flesh necessarily means the ruin of the whole person: in the same line, the breath may still be brought through to the Lord’s day.
THE ROOT
παραδοῦναι
paradounai
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
Give; the compound παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi) means to hand over.
“hand over” in this verse is paradounai. Here, “deliver” carries the concrete sense of handing someone over into another’s custody or sphere. Its root also appears in words for giving back and sharing, keeping the act grounded in transfer without settling what that transfer means on its own.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: Hand over, deliver.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb behind “deliver” in the verse: the person is handed over to the Adversary.
apodidōmi: Give back, render, repay.
ἀποδίδωμι
It shows the same root of giving at work in returning or rendering something.
metadidōmi: Share, impart.
μεταδίδωμι
It carries the root of giving into the act of passing something on.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
Breathe, blow.
Πνεῦμα (pneuma) carries “breath” and “spirit” in one Greek noun; its verbal root means to breathe or blow. That unity lets “spirit” retain the resonance of living breath even as the verse sets it alongside the flesh.
ALSO GROWS
pnoē: Breath, a blowing.
πνοή
It makes the breathing sense of the root explicit.
empneō: Breathe in, breathe.
ἐμπνέω
This verb shows the same root in the act of breathing.
σωθῇ
sōthē
GROWS FROM
σῴζω
sōzō
Rescue, preserve, bring through.
“delivered” in this verse is sōthē. Here “saved” can be heard as being brought through: the verb names rescue or preservation, and the sentence places that possibility at the day of the Lord Jesus. Its word family also names deliverance and the one who delivers.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēria: Deliverance, rescue.
σωτηρία
It names the deliverance expressed by the verb in the verse.
sōtēr: Deliverer, rescuer.
σωτήρ
It names the one who brings someone through.
diasōzō: Bring safely through, preserve.
διασῴζω
It makes the through-to-safety sense of this word family especially clear.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can name adversarial harm as real while also naming a boundary, purpose, or horizon that harm does not control.
And the LORD said to the Adversary, Behold, he is in your hand; only guard his living soul.And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, look, the Adversary has asked for you, to sift you as wheat. But I have begged for you, that your trust may not run out. And when you have turned back, steady your brothers.But the God of all favor, who called you into his weight of the ages in the Anointed One, after you have suffered for a little while, will himself mend you, steady you, strengthen you, and lay your foundation.THE THREAD
Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to the Adversary, that they may be trained not to speak harm.The Greek verb translated “deliver” here is the same hand-over verb in 1 Corinthians 5:5. The echo shows that the transfer itself is not the whole meaning: each verse gives a different stated end, so this verse’s movement from destruction of flesh to the breath’s deliverance stays in its full, unsettling wording.
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